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A review by squiggly_cj
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence by Kristen R. Ghodsee
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I found this a very informative and well-structured book, with a clear message: that socialism is not possible without women's liberation. Some thoughts:
While the book did spend some time on looking at feminism vs socialism and why both are needed, it still felt like the book criticized more the impacts of patriarchy than the institution itself. I was thoroughly amused by the term brocialists. The author did well to note that under state socialism women's rights weren't promoted for their inherent value, but rather to enable women's participation in the nation.
The book introduced sexual economics theory, which I'm very grossed out by, as it's the idea that (heterosexual) sexual relationships are fundamentally about men exchanging goods (i.e. financial security) for women's sexual "services" - even outside the context of formal sex work! The author's perspective was this only applies under capitalism, as she explored accounts from women living during Soviet state socialism, where there wasn't such a link between property and sexuality. Generally that was the author's argument - that socialism liberates personal relationships from economic calculations.
I was really glad that some of the book's arguments didn't resonate because they were for an American audience, and we thankfully don't have all the same issues in Aotearoa - the sections on defending women's suffrage and public healthcare particularly!
I found striking the book's encouragement of historic consciousness of capitalism's finite history.
Capitalism's concentration of real political power with the super rich is as much a concern as Eastern European state socialist countries concentrating real political power with dictators and elites. The solution is citizen control of the government.
This was only in the acknowledgements, but I liked the model she referenced of Exit, Voice and Loyalty to an oppressive regime. Only strong forward momentum (more than just maintaining the status quo) counteracts attempts to bring back harmful policies.
While the book did spend some time on looking at feminism vs socialism and why both are needed, it still felt like the book criticized more the impacts of patriarchy than the institution itself. I was thoroughly amused by the term brocialists. The author did well to note that under state socialism women's rights weren't promoted for their inherent value, but rather to enable women's participation in the nation.
The book introduced sexual economics theory, which I'm very grossed out by, as it's the idea that (heterosexual) sexual relationships are fundamentally about men exchanging goods (i.e. financial security) for women's sexual "services" - even outside the context of formal sex work! The author's perspective was this only applies under capitalism, as she explored accounts from women living during Soviet state socialism, where there wasn't such a link between property and sexuality. Generally that was the author's argument - that socialism liberates personal relationships from economic calculations.
I was really glad that some of the book's arguments didn't resonate because they were for an American audience, and we thankfully don't have all the same issues in Aotearoa - the sections on defending women's suffrage and public healthcare particularly!
I found striking the book's encouragement of historic consciousness of capitalism's finite history.
Capitalism's concentration of real political power with the super rich is as much a concern as Eastern European state socialist countries concentrating real political power with dictators and elites. The solution is citizen control of the government.
This was only in the acknowledgements, but I liked the model she referenced of Exit, Voice and Loyalty to an oppressive regime. Only strong forward momentum (more than just maintaining the status quo) counteracts attempts to bring back harmful policies.